Babyboomers- “Generation Alzheimer” or “Generation Reinvention”

Brent Green, a friend on mine who is a wonderful student of and advocate for the baby-boom generation has written a book well worth a close read “Generation Reinvention.” Brent writes with knowledge, passion and personal experience as one of the best baby boomer marketers around. He also interviewed me on his new web Positive World Radio Network show. As a boomer (49er as Brent calls me) myself, I think our generation does have the potential to transform the world – for better I hope but also for ill. Do we smoke pot and party while the species goes extinct or do we invigorate the roots of our social activism that we planted in the earth back in the 60′s? Brett honors Danny and I with a chapter in his book. Chapter32 is called The Most Dreaded Disease of Our Time: Demystified. Brett gets the need for a new paradigm and understands how our message is one of hope that resonates with those beginning to enter elderhood. How remarkable is the contrast with “Generation Alzheimer’s” from the Alzheimer Association prepared especially for boomers. It perpetuates the individual fear, demographic doom, and desperation for a cure messages. Undoubtedly they think this is a good way to raise money from the next generation at risk. My hope is that boomers who have experienced the challenges of dementia in their families and communities with open their minds and hearts a bit more. Comparing notes with their peers may lead to learning of the heterogeneity of brain aging and the ubiquitous presence (even in themselves) of age-related cognitive changes. Perhaps they will be suspicious of technical fixes to complex problems, particularly when offered by the pharmaceutical industry. Most importantly perhaps they will look to their kids and children in general and see the need to adjust social priorities and develop life-span perspectives on brain fitness. Let’s hope they vote with their ballots and checkbooks to transform health care and shut down the messages of exaggerated promises and hype. Peter

Comments

Hello, we – voters – can never “shut down the messages of exaggerated promises and hype.” Politicians follow the money, the simplest answers to the most complex questions, the promises of an easy and quick fix if only they would approve more money, faster, the irrational belief that we can save money by spending more.

This self-serving roadmap was drawn by the military/industrial complex (oops, wrong generation) – this self serving road map was drawn and is freely distributed by the Pharmaceutical industry (whom ever they are) and the researchers and their partners in National Organizations who claim title to the “leaders of the Alzheimer’s and Other Related Dementias truths (and yes, we do know some of their names).
Fifty or so years ago Ike warned us of the long term impact this M/I complex could have on our country….after all the billions we have spent on defense, all the lives that have been lost in war – are we closer to a world without war than we were 50 years ago?

Will historians say the same of the P/AORD complex fifty years from now. Hands in the audience — how many readers truly beleive in 50 years some of you will be living in a world without Alzheimer’s and other related dementias?

Isn’t this history repeating inself? Driven by well intended, but oh so clearly forces who have conflicting inteerests in scaring us into spending more money faster on a problem we never have figured out the cause of?

Boo! to you the newly named Alzheimer’s Generation. Boo! to you who don’t want to lose your souls, who don’t want to suffer, who don’t want to die twice – and the way to make all these fears go away quickly and forever?

hello, I was just “catching up” on the posts of these two insightful,humNAB, AND SENSITIVE human beings and I came across this post of I mine. I read it with “fresh eyes” because I COULDN’T RECall writing it.

I still agree with myself, a reassuring fact for me in and of itself. But what I saw this time were the spelling errors, the typing errors, the grammar errors, the word substitutions, the fact that my fingers no longer seem to be under the full command of my brain and vise versa. My I have bveen having trouble with my voice recognition software latetely my vocie recognitions software isn’t working on my computer for me as well as it had in the past.

This the uneneditedme!

I am embarassed that I quite apparently didn’t spell/grammar check this before I posted it. I wish I could excuse it with the explination “I forgot.” But the truth the truth is, or perhaps I didn’t forget, I just didn’t do it. I actually believed I did spell check it. I actually believed it was error free.

Posting your thoughts for all to see reveals more than just the state of your ability to think. Computers help to cover up common symptoms of dementia, and they also cover up the pervasiveness of the eymptoms. I still think pretty good, and I still but I don’t/can’t express myself pretty good. Sine shortly after my birth I have been cursed/blessed with longwindedness. This is unrelated to my dementia. But last week I was taping a DVD, and had limited myself to 5 minute responses. I thought them through, wrote them out – and then at the last minute I discovered we were not going to use a teleprompter, no problem thought I.

My first answer was 45 minutes long, and I thought I was being concise. And the videographer who I know, admire, and The person taping it was kind about the time, but I left him with an editing task of monumental proportions. I have none to secretly dredead the time when I because aware that my smpytoms had reaced a point where they were limiting my ability to communicate.

I still have the thoughts, I still have lots of words to express them. Style seems to be the first to go, not substance. But can it be far behind? My cognitive reserve – a larger than normal vocabulary, my continually widening circle of supportivefriends, a family who will never beleive I am fadingaway or losing it bs qukk KQya treaT ME AS A WHOLEPERSON/grandfath GRANDFATHER/AND SO ON AND SO ON, my previous purposes in life have all contributed to who I am today and to my succes at civerubg up and working arounbd my symptoms all these experiences have worked to my advantage. Just like the book I didn’t mean/intend to write my current purpose was not intended by me . It just sort of snuckup on me and bit me in the butt.

I’m running out of reserves. I think so. I had not intended to lapse into this polemic about myself, things like this just seem to sometimes happen now.

Some folks and organizations response to my experience, conclsuions and observations that i suspect at least hope somewhere in their hearts and hearts and heads they know I am telling an unpleasant truths about them and what they are and are not doing – some of themwhisper to other s” he doesn’t have alzheimer’s disease it must be something else. This above all to thine ownself be true, even if your job wants you to shate it from time to time, or spin it from time to time. Let them follow me, or anyonesle for that matter around as we alapse wanderoff into out own moments and todays. Let them spend time, lots of time not treatingus but living with us and knowing us and out lives. I so tire or theirfear billed reactionsto me, while atthe sametime doing theirbest to createfearin the minds and heearts of so many others many. Let them lookinginto the eys of their grand daughters who have just found themwandering around andnot recognize =who they are until they have almost reached the time they have driven you home. I so tired of thid defensiveness.

Unlike our form president I have chosen not to withdraw from my dadmittedly smaller public world immediately after announcing I had been diagnosed with dementia, probably of the alzheimers type. I sort of appreciate the fact that “Who wants to stand in front of people and rhetorically soil themselves. I don’t want folks to pity me, sI don’t want my expression of my symtomys to hold their attention,I want them to think about what I have to say, and then reconsider some of their own treasured ideas. nI don’t I don’t want my style to get int he way of my substance. What to do?

I’m not sure. and perhaps thatbest sumsup this yet another crossroads presented to me by dementia, probably/maybe/perhaps of the Alzehimer’s type.